Proposed Changes to the Academic Calendar

(The most recent additions are in red below.)
Both students and faculty have proposed several changes to academic calendar policies during the period from January 2005 to present.
Among the desired (by some) changes are

to have more reading days prior to final exams, and in particular a desire to avoid semesters with no reading days;

to have a two day break in October (to be accomplished by eliminating the break on Labor Day);

to finish the fall semester a bit sooner (to be accomplished by starting a bit sooner);

to finish the spring semester a bit sooner (to be accomplished by starting a bit sooner).

When considering these proposed changes, it is perhaps useful to keep in mind that some of the most recent changes to academic
calendar policy were due to

a desire (by some) to lengthen the period of time between the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester;

a desire (by some) to not have classes on MLK Day.

(Another recent change was extending the Thanksgiving Break to also include Wednesday. This change was strongly supported by both
faculty and students, and perhaps has little to do with the changes currently under consideration.)

The Academic Policies Committee of the Faculty Senate
originally
identified three possible changes that
seemed
to be the most promising ways to
satisfy at least some of the current desires.
Originally, we did not state that we strongly recommend these changes, but rather we just
thought that if any changes were going to be made, the ones we proposed may be the best ones to seriously consider.
Then we sent information about the proposed changes to a wide variety of people within the university and requested
feedback.
Having gotten a lot of feedback about the proposed changes, we decided to not recommend one of them. While we
generally like the other two proposals, it seems like it's impossible for us to be highly confident that they are either good or
bad. It was finally decided that it didn't make sense for us to withdraw the proposals; nor did it
make sense for us to srongly recommend the proposals with no hesitation. So, because we do see some merit in the
two proposals pertaining to the starting dates of the fall and spring semesters, we'll go ahead and present them as
motions, and hope that the collective wisdom of the Faculty Senate will help it make the best decisions.
If you read this prior to the day we vote (the plan is to vote at the April 5 meeting of the Faculty Senate), and
want to make recommendations or comments, I urge
members of the faculty to give recommendations to the faculty senators of their academic units, and others can
direct feedback to Cliff Sutton (csutton@gmu.edu).

Note: Due to problems associated with the proposal pertaining to the Labor Day and Columbus Day breaks, it is perhaps best that
the proposal pertaining to these breaks presented earlier
no longer considered as a possibility for the next three year calendar. Explanation will be provided below.

1st possible change:
(Note: This is the proposal no longer being considered at present. (Explanation is provided below.))

Have classes on Labor Day and extend the Columbus Day Break to include Tuesday.

discussion:

No classes on Labor Day is awkward for classes which just meet once a week on Mondays. A week off after one class meeting is not
strongly needed, and in many cases it hinders the class getting off to a smooth start. Furthermore, Monday classes get no
other breaks during the fall semester --- after Labor Day they meet for 13 straight weeks prior to the final exam period.
Finally, Monday classes currently meet on Tuesday the week of Columbus Day, which is awkward because for other aspects of students'
lives, Tuesday does not become Monday that week. (It should be kept in mind that many students have rather complicated lives, with
jobs, families, and many scheduled activities.)

A two day break in October provides students with a nice "4 day weekend" which can be used to serious preparation for midterm exams,
or can be used to travel home or elsewhere.

Although some students, faculty, and staff may wish to have Labor Day off, it can be noted that some other institutions in Virginia
(e.g., UVa, Va Tech, JMU, and William & Mary) have classes on Labor Day, and of course GMU has classes on other holidays such as Veterans Day
and Presidents Day. Plus, the proposed change need not reduce the number of days off for
faculty and staff if an adjustment is made in October.

The initial feedback from Faculty Senate members (and other faculty members as well)
on this proposal indicated that a good proportion of the
Senate liked it, and a good proportion of the Senate very much disliked it. Some who really like it have considerable experience
teaching Monday classes that meet one day a week, and they realize that the current schedule is horrible for the students in such
classes --- not only do they not get a break in October or November, but they also have to attend class the Tuesday after Columbus
Day, which may interfere with other scheduled activities. Faculty members who dislike the proposal
worried about student attendence,
claimed that it would be wrong to
have classes on Labor Day,
or noted that doing so may be rather inconvenient for faculty and students having families.

In addition to seeking feedback from faculty, feedback was also sought from others. It was determined that the Staff Senate
strongly opposed this proposal. A major concern they have is that child care centers will be closed on Labor Day, and some staff
members routinely make use of day care for their children. Also, many staff workers greatly dislike the idea of losing the Labor Day
holiday, since it occurs the day before public schools generally begin classes, and is a good day to enjoy familiy activities.

An investigation was done to determine how state universities having classes on Labor Day handle their holiday schedules. It was
learned that at Virginia Tech, Labor Day is a day on which staff work, but supervisors are lenient with granting leave, and those who
work earn comp time so that another day may be taken off at a later time in place of the lost Labor Day holiday. While this policy
seems to work out fine at Virginia Tech, GMU staff seem to strongly oppose putting such a policy into place here. The leaders of the
Staff Senate believe that many will strongly resent having to work on Labor Day (noting that not all of the staff can
be given the day off),
and it was pointed out that such a policy could cause quite a hardship for single parents who have to work.
(Note: The Virginia Tech policy seems to be the most staff-friendly policy that would allow for Labor Day classes.)

Since prior to learning of strong staff opposition, the faculty seemed about evenly split (or perhaps a slight majority were already
opposed to the proposal), and it is clear that many in the Faculty Senate are sympathetic to the staff complaints, it is perhaps best
to not give this proposal any further consideration as we continue to investigate possible changes to the academic calendar for the
next three year calendar.

While making no changes concerning the Labor Day and Columbus Day breaks leaves us with a break early in the semester when a break
doesn't seem needed, and leaves us with a particularly ugly situation for Monday evening students, there doesn't seem to be a good
alternative to this unless it is determined that the faculty really wants to support the original proposal to replace the Labor Day
break with an additional day of break on the Tuesday after Columbus Day and it can be determined exactly which
portion of the staff will have to work on Labor Day (e.g., what offices have to be open, and what services need to be
provided, in order to have classes), and a plan can be developed that will make those staff workers reasonably happy.
(Note: It won't work to just eliminate the Columbus Day holiday and take the entire week off at Thanksgiving, because that
would result in Monday classes not meeting for two weeks, and to try to add an additional Monday class day right
before exams works against the Student Senate's desire to have a nice reading days period prior to final exams.)

2nd possible change:

Begin fall semester classes the Thursday 11 days before Labor Day, and have the final exam period start on the Monday morning
following the end of classes (on Wednesday),
except that when Labor Day occurs on the 6th or 7th of September, the exam period would start the
Saturday following the end of classes.

discussion:

Assuming the current amount of break time during the semester is maintained, this will allow for classes to end on a Wednesday,
which will allow for a four day reading period (Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun) prior to final exams, which would start on Monday. This change will
allow for a reading day period to exisit even when Labor Day is relatively late (as it was in 2005), without making the fall semester
end later than current policy does. When Labor Day comes relatively early, and the current policy allows for a reading day period, by
starting earlier in August a reading day period can still exisit and the end of exams can also occur earlier, which may result in many
having a more pleasant holiday break.

It should be noted that current policy does not allow for a one or two day reading period when Labor Day occurs relatively late.
For example, for the Fall 2005 semester, the reading day period was just part of a day, with exams starting at 4:30 PM on Monday.
Although, it can be noted that since there are no classes on Sunday,
and most students do not have classes on Friday and Saturday, the reading day situation
isn't as bleak as it may first appear to be. Still, a big disadvantage to not having a longer reading day period is that without the cushion
of a few reading days, it is more difficult
to make up classes missed due to snow, ice, hurricanes, planes crashing into the Pentagon, etc. It should be kept in mind that when
a class which meets only one day a week suffers a cancellation, a whole week of material is lost, and it is often very desirable
to make up the missed class period. Since cancellations due to snow and ice are more likely to occur towards the very end of the
fall semester, without a reading day period which could possibly be used to make up missed classes, it may be
impossible to make up classes unless the Provost alters the exam schedule, which is a situation that undoubtably most students and
faculty would like to avoid.

On the down side, the dorms would have to be made ready for occupation sooner, and since Friday cand Saturday classes aren't very popular,
many students who live on campus would have to arrive at GMU sooner in order to attend classes on a Thursday, and then they wouldn't
have more classes until the following Monday or Tuesday (although this is perhaps not necessarily a bad thing, since currently it may
be the case that some students don't have adequate time to settle in before getting very busy with classes).

A comparison of academic calendars of eight state or local instituions with GMU's
academic calendar shows that four of the eight institutions typically start fall semester classes on a Wednesday or Thursday.
Also, it can be noted that VPI&SU starts the fall semester on the Monday two weeks before Labor Day.

The exception to start the exam period on Saturday during years when Labor Day occurs relatively late serves to
prevent the semester from ending so late in Decemeber. For example, in 2009 when Labor Day falls on September 7,
rather than have the last scheduled exam be Saturday 12/19,
the last scheduled exam could be Friday 12/18. Since the vast majority of students do not take Saturday classes,
this exception won't affect most students. Students with a Saturday exam would still have a reading period of two
full days, and then also have Sunday off after their Saturday exam.

Some have stated that this proposal has the semester starting sooner, but not ending sooner, thereby stretching the
semester out, which some find undesirable. However, even though the proposal allows for a longer reading day period,
it also allows for the final exam period to end sooner. With the current academic calendar, a weekend occurs during
the exam period, and exams extend into a second week. But with the proposed plan, exams start on a Monday morning,
and end on the following Saturday. The table below shows the last day of exams under both the current and proposed
calendar policies, not counnting Saturday exams
(which are somewhat rare) and not counting the cushion of an exam "make up day" which is added to the exam period on
the academic calendar to reflect the fact that exam cancellations due to bad weather may result in the exam period extending past the day of the last exam period indicated on the original schedule. It can be noted although the proposed policy
calls for a longer reading day period, because scheduled exams do not extend into a second week, starting four days
sooner would lead to finishing four days sooner in 2007 and 2008 (or 3 days sooner if one counts Saturday exams).
(Note: 2009 is not shown because it woud be a year in which under the current policy reading days would be eliminated
and exams would start on Monday (as opposed to the usual 4:30 PM on Tuesday). That year, because Labor Day doesn't
occur until September 7 and the semester will start rather late, exams would end rather late under both policies.)

year

end of exams under current policy

end of exams under proposed policy

2005

Mon 12/19

Fri 12/16

2006

Mon 12/18

Fri 12/15

2007

Tue 12/18

Fri 12/14

2008

Tue 12/16

Fri 12/12

3rd possible change:

For spring semesters in years for which MLK Day comes relatively early, so that by current policy classes would begin the Monday
following MLK Day, begin spring semester classes the Thursday following MLK Day, and have the final exam period start the Monday
morning following the end of classes (on Wednesday).
(For spring semesters in years for which MLK Day comes relatively late, so that by current policy classes would begin the Tuesday
following MLK Day, continue with the current policy of starting classes on a Tuesday following MLK Day, ending classes on a Monday,
and having final exams start the following Wednesday morning (allowing for only one reading day).)

discussion:

In years during which MLK Day occurs relatively early, this change will result in the spring semester ending earlier, as some desire.
Although the shift is rather slight, it will occur on those years when the semester would end relatively late under the current
policy, thus providing some relief for those who dislike the spring semester ending so late. Also, on those years in which MLK Day
comes relatively late, it will allow for a longer reading day period (Thur-Sun) for the students without the necessity of changing the date of
graduation. Additionally, there will be more time between the end of the spring semester and graduation, which is something desired by the
registrar.

In years during which MLK Day occurs relatively late, and under current policy classes start the Tuesday after MLK Day, the
policy of not having classes on MLK Day makes it awkward to make any changes. For example, if classes were to start the Thursday
prior to MLK Day on such years, and assuming the only mid-semester break was a week off for Spring Break, the fact that Monday classes
would not meet on MLK Day means that near the very end of the semester there would be a Wednesday such that at that time Tues, Wed,
Thur, Fri, and Sat classes would have met 14 times, but Monday classes would have met only 13 times, and in order to get to the 14th
Monday there would be a Thursday through Sunday period with no classes.

On the down side, by changing policy to start slightly earlier some years, during those years we would essentially be replacing
May class days with January class days ... and although finishing the semester earlier and having additional days of nice weather in May
with no classes is exactly the reason that some want to start the spring semester sooner, it also puts us at greater risk of having
more class cancellations due to snow and ice (and class cancellations can really mess things up for some people). Additionally,
Winter Break study abroad programs may have to make adjustments. (For example, this January some overseas programs went from Jan. 2 to
Jan. 21, ending just before the spring semester began. If the spring semester were to start earlier, such a study abroad program would
have to begin earlier, perhaps in very late December, in order to be of sufficient duration. However, it should be noted that
spending one New Year's Eve in a different country may not be such a bad experience, and it is also the case that under current
policy we sometimes have spring semester classes starting a few days earlier than this year's start date of Jan. 23. (E.g., if the
proposed change was in effect this year, classes would have started on Thursday, Jan. 19. But classes started on Jan. 20 just two
years ago, and so a start date of Jan. 19 wouldn't be much different than what we currently do some years.)) Furthermore, as in the
fall, if it is decided to start classes on a Thursday,
many students who live on campus would have to arrive at GMU sooner in order to attend classes on a Thursday, and then they wouldn't
have more classes until the following Monday or Tuesday.

It should be noted that this proposed policy would not affect the next three year calendar because MLK Day occurs
relatively late during each of those three years, and so under both the current and the proposed policy, each year
the semester
would start the Tuesday after MLK Day.

Some have expressed concern about the Spring semester starting too early under the proposed policy. The table below shows that
under the current policy the Spring semester can start as early as the 19th, and under the proposed policy the earliest start date is
only one day sooner, the 18th. So really there isn't a big difference in how early the spring semester can start under the two
policies.

day of week for Jan 1

date for MLK Day

1st day of classes under current policy

1st day of classes under proposed policy

Sat

1/17

Mon 1/24

Thu 1/20

Sun

1/16

Mon 1/23

Thu 1/19

Mon

1/15

Mon 1/22

Thu 1/18

Tue

1/21

Tue 1/22

Tue 1/22

Wed

1/20

Tue 1/21

Tue 1/21

Thu

1/19

Tue 1/20

Tue 1/20

Fri

1/18

Tue 1/19

Tue 1/19

Feb. 7 Update

On Feb. 2 the Student Sentate voted on a
resolution that, while worded differently, pertains to the three proposed changes above.
The students approved of the proposed change involving Labor Day by a vote of 22 - 4, and they approved of the two proposed changes
involving the starting dates of the semesters by votes of 24 - 2. So the Student Senate not only favors all three proposed changes,
but they do so by a strong majority.